1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to customizing an interface and more particularly relates to customizing a graphical user interface.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data processing devices (DPD) such as servers, mainframe computers, switches, routers, bridges, storage devices, and the like are often managed from a computer workstation. An operator may employ a graphical user interface (GUI) rendered by the computer workstation to manage the DPD. For example, the operator may initialize a DPD hard disk drive through a GUI configured to manage the hard disk drive.
It is often advantageous for an operator to mange heterogeneous DPDs using a single GUI. As used herein, heterogeneous DPDs refer to DPDs of different makes and/or models. Some GUIs may be compliant with the Storage Management Initiative—Specification (SMI-S) developed by the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA). SMI-S employs a common information model and web-based enterprise management standards. A SMI-S compliant GUI may communicate with a plurality of heterogeneous DPD.
Thus the operator may use a single SMI-S compliant GUI to manage a RAID storage system from a first manufacturer and an optical storage device array from a second manufacturer. In addition, DPDs that are added for management by the GUI after the installation of the GUI may also be supported.
Unfortunately, some DPD may support features and functionality that are not supported by a base GUI. For example, a SMI-S compliant GUI may not support a storage device's restore feature. The problem is exacerbated as manufacturers create DPD with features and functionality specifically designed to differentiate the DPD in the market.